Marketing and Technology: A Successful Future

Those of us who are marketers know that marketing, as a hole is virtually no good without technology. As a career marketer, this statement has never been more true than in today’s digital marketing world.

I started thinking about the hows and whys of this clash of the titans (marketing & technology) in the business world. It was clear to me that in order for companies to create new business opportunities, reach customers and engage them, marketing and technology must play in the same sandbox happily – and forever.

…Technologies and methodologies are deeply integrated into the core of the business. This means that every employee, customer, and partner will be a marketer – and you better start giving them the education and tolls to enable them to advocate on your behalf. – Charlene Li

They Must Think Alike

A successful merger between two disciplines in a business means they must play well together and think alike. Marketers and technology professionals are not wired the same, I think most of us understand that and also value it. However, in order to create a competitive brand, these two now must be one – or at least think like one.

A Successful Future Ahead?

Here are 8 reasons why Marketing and Technology together can create a successful future.

Marketing Can’t Survive Without Technology: Let’s face reality, as a marketer, I need all the data, social media, apps, mobile, infrastructure and creative tools I can get my hands on to be more efficient and effective.

Marketing Isn’t Just Being Creative At A Desktop Computer: As a business, we need advanced, innovative, collaborative thought leadership and advanced tools integrated around technology. We need all of these in order to perform advanced marketing tactics.

Increased Connectivity And Proximity: When we have the right technology in place and know how to use it like a marketer should, we can leverage that technology. This will provide a higher level of connectivity to our prospective customers as well as add proximity-based marketing options. Both of these are important for more than just our existing customers, they also play a critical role in customer retention and corporate communications as well.

Technology And The Customer Touch Point: Often the marketing messages that reach the customer can be fragmented and/or inconsistent. Why? Because the technology being used is not the right tool. Sometimes us marketers try to use methods we know because it’s easy to use. In the end, it’s not the right technology tool and the marketing initiative did not perform well because of this. The customer touch point requires messaging that is consistent everywhere along the customer path. The right technology can help us accomplish this.

Agile: Being agile means we need to be adaptive to our customer needs but also to the ways technology can serve our content and connect to the customer more effectively. Technology and marketing working together can help create a more agile environment. This also will help marketers create content quickly and easily and distribute that content across several platforms seamlessly and with a consistent message.

The CMO And CIO Must Think Alike: Creating new ideas, innovative ways to reach the customer and engage them requires more than a marketing brain. It requires a technology viewpoint as well. Businesses need marketing and technology to develop these ideas together, not in isolated offices and in presentation decks.

Marketing Technologists: I think the next wave of marketing and technology careers is a hybrid marketer/IT professional. Some companies are already doing this now and have paved the way for others to see how it can be successful. This is important to help both marketing and technology collaborate more effectively and accomplish the difficult initiatives that require in-depth thinking and experience on both sides.

Integration: We’ve heard this term for years now. Yes, it’s critical. However, I feel it can be thought of as lip service and not executed the way it should. When marketing and technology peers come together, they will understand that integration is not a word that’s written into the corporate strategy. It’s tactical, communications; marketing and technology cohesiveness that transcends the action item list and permeates everything and everyone in the business. Integration occurs in creative marketing development and message distribution to technology purchases and implementation. Integration is a business critical process that should be followed.

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